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June 19, 2009

JDI survey miscellany

I continue to read through the 500 (!) or so free-form survey responses to our JDI query, and as I do so I’m picking out items to which I can reply:

“Please fix the functionality with Exposé + Spaces under OS X!”

We work closely with Apple on these issues, and my understanding is that we’ve done what we can from our side. Exposé has certain limitations (e.g. it can’t tile tabbed windows; note the behavior with Safari or Firefox), and Apple is only going to do a limited amount to make Spaces work with Carbon-based apps. Hopefully things will improve as Photoshop migrates to Cocoa.

“Allow Save and Open windows to have independent histories.”

Good suggestion. In the meantime, if you’re on OS X and aren’t using Default Folder, I think you’re kind of insane. Hitting Opt-up/down arrows to move among recently used folders is second nature to me, to the point that I can’t believe it’s not on every Mac. As for Windows, I know I’ve used similar utilities in the past, but I don’t know any names offhand. (Suggestions welcome.)

“Should be able to set up a grid of guides based off of pre-entered values so you don’t have to drag out 100 of them by hand.”

Check out the GridMaker panel. Maybe this is the sort of thing we should include in the box (polished up, naturally). The advantage of shipping some features as scripts/Flash panels is that others can modify/extend them as needed.

Thanks for all the excellent feedback. The team accomplished a great deal last week, and we look forward to sharing more details soon.

Comments

John wrote – “In the meantime, if you’re on OS X and aren’t using Default Folder, I think you’re kind of insane.”
Same goes if still using Finder at all! PathFinder eases the pain a bit more.http://cocoatech.com/[But PathFinder doesn’t replace/affect your Open/Save windows, does it? That’s where Default Folder really shines for me. (I do find DF’s menubar extension useful from time to time.) –J.]
And if you are on Windows, Directory Opus saves you soooo much time and makes Finder look even worse. Very, very powerful and very customisable. With easy export + import of prefs – something for the JDI list.http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus9/index.html#introduction

Lechia Davis — 6:18 PM on June 19, 2009

Off subject but I’m hoping you can help me. Bought my husband CS4 Upgrade for Christmas. He had CS3 Extended. Was told he would have to have CS4 Extended. Bought the CS4 Ext. and then started what has been a 6 month ordeal to get a refund on the Non-Extended program. If you can help me in anyway please email and I can give you complete details, dates, numbers, etc. lechiadavis@hotmail.com
Thank you.

warren — 9:24 PM on June 19, 2009

In addition to separate SAVE and OPEN location-histories, SAVE AS should also have its own history. Thanks!

Eric — 11:33 PM on June 19, 2009

I agree with you about Default Folder. I just didn’t get it and certainly not at the price, until I tried it. I couldn’t buy it fast enough after that.

When will PSCS4 have a direct interface with LR2?
Interface as with old PS/Illustrator rather than just an export function from LR2 to PSCS4.
It would be cool to go back and forth, especially with the proliferation of preseys in LR2.
Thanks

As for Windows, I know I’ve used similar utilities in the past, but I don’t know any names offhand. (Suggestions welcome.)
Unders Vista and Windows 7 it’s part of the default OS navigation GUI. There’s an icon to click called “Recent Places” in both the Save and Open dialog that allows you to choose from a considerable list of recent locations (local and network).

As for Windows, I know I’ve used similar utilities in the past, but I don’t know any names offhand. (Suggestions welcome.)
For WinXP users, this app does the trick: Edit Buddy (http://www.decisoft.com/).

Jerry — 7:47 AM on June 22, 2009

Speaking of Windows Open/Save, is there any reason that Photoshop for Windows is stuck with the 8+ year old open/save dialog, instead of the much nicer new one that shipped in 2006 with Vista?[There’s a bunch of custom logic in the PS Open/Save path, and the task of rewriting these dialogs keeps getting pushed off due to other architectural work that gets pushed in front (e.g. Cocoa). I agree that it’s lame; sorry about that. –J.]
It would be nice if I could actually see my user defined shortcuts, like I can on OSX.
Photoshop for OSX uses the current OS dialog. What’s the problem with Windows?
It’s pretty sad that Notepad has a nicer open/save experience than a $600 app.

Jerry — 10:19 AM on June 22, 2009

Ah, thanks for the explanation. Being an non-programmer techie, I just think “oh, why don’t they just call the new dialog. Easy.”
Well, see if you can push it through for CS5. It would be a nice touch.

Unders Vista and Windows 7 it’s part of the default OS navigation GUI. There’s an icon to click called “Recent Places” in both the Save and Open dialog that allows you to choose from a considerable list of recent locations (local and network).
To add, for XP, it’s also available as part of the native Dialogue for Open and Save as “My Recent Documents”, although it’s not as clean as it is under Vista and Windows 7.

Keith Humm — 3:01 PM on June 29, 2009

Now I remember why I want history saved: accidentally flattening of images!
Even better, an option to explicitly *disable* the flatten command – the only time I *ever* flatten things is with a copy all layers command. I can’t understand why anyone would flatten their primary image…

Carl A. — 9:52 AM on January 12, 2011

I’d like to know how many Adobe customers are really leveraging the Flash panels in Photoshop to make extensions and customizations. Was it worth all the UI pain that we have to suffer through as the panel scaffolding matures into CS6, CS7… etc.?

Who was driving this “innovation”? I’m really curious, because I haven’t found any PS panel extensions that seem worth even an iota of currency compared to the speed and polish of earlier versions without Flash.